Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE) on Tuesday reiterated its determination to cut its labour cost, by abolishing the terms of a 1999 labour agreement covering time benefits and work maturities, while it would proceed with the implementation of its investment program (350-450 million euros) annually in the fixed-telephony business and fight to regain its older share in the market (50 pct from 46 pct currently) in the broadband business.

OTE announced it would launch its satellite TV station by Christmas and complete the first fiber optic networks works this year.

OTE has lost around 250,000 customers so far this year, of which 130,000 in the last quarter, a trend expected to be continued in the next quarter "with the blessings of the national market watchdog", Panagiotis Vourloumis, OTE's chairman said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters, in Thessaloniki, Vourloumis said the management would seek to promote a new labour status after consultations with trade unions with the aim to cut its labour cost from 33 pct of OTE's revenues (22 pct on average in Europe).

Vourloumis strongly criticized the market watchdog saying it was scandalously favouring OTE's competitors by forcing the organization to sell its products up to 40 pct more expensively. OTE would also seek a reorganization of its retail network, saying 25-30 pct of branches could either relocate or their human resources distributed to other sales points.

Vourloumis said OTE was interested in selling its 20 pct equity stake in Telekom Srbjia, an initial investment of 155 million euros.

He said that mobile telephony operations were progressing well in Romania, while Bulgaria was also on a positive trend. On the other hand, once huge profit margins in Albania have significantly shrank because of strong competition in the market.